Dear Lezlie Lowe,
As always, you are the calm voice of reason and sensibility amid the thundering (ringing, buzzing, beeping, bleeping) herd in your article "Cell hell," (Lowedown, July 24). I was one of the first kids on my block with a PC---an Amiga 2000!---but I still don't own a cell phone. As for watches, I've actually done you one better. I recently came to the conclusion that I hate wearing one on my wrist (never could wear rings on my fingers). And it finally dawned on me, after wearing Levis 501s for over 40 years, that the little fifth pocket was originally meant for watches. So I went out and bought myself a gorgeous antique Waltham pocket watch, a little masterpiece of the watchmakers' art. It's 103 years old and you have to wind it every day, but it keeps good time and pulling it out on its gold chain and popping open the case to check the time is so totally retro. But here's the coolest thing of all: I have no doubt it will still be ticking when every single iPhone G3 is buried in some anonymous landfill. And that makes me think that we may coming full circle, going back to making simple things that last, rather than complex toys that are obsolete the moment they're purchased.
By ---Andrew David Terris
